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Wednesday, November 21, 2012

Learning as we go

Today marks an interesting milestone for me – I have officially been married more than half of my life. Greg and I are celebrating our 20th wedding anniversary.

I was 19 years old when I said “I do” and had no idea what I was doing. I didn’t know how to love another person more than I loved myself. I didn’t know how to do life with my new husband day in and day out. Where was my space? Where were my girls’ night outs? Why isn’t everything my way anymore? It was time to grow up!

Isn’t that how you and I are in our faith walk too? When we give our hearts to God, He gives us a new perspective. We realize there is so much we don’t know – how to love others, how to be in relationship with Him, how to walk away from our own sin nature. We have to grow up!

Thankfully, we don’t have to grow up alone. Greg and I have had amazing models of marriage over the years. Some couples (like our parents) have been together 50 years or so and have created a legacy of love. Other couples have shown us what not to do as their marriages fail to weather the storm. Both examples have molded and shaped us into the couple we are today – strong, flawed, and grateful.

God expects us to learn as we go. He never intended to show us His whole plan all at once. Instead He provides the instruction of His word and relationships with others to teach us one lesson at a time. We have the opportunity to take those examples, both good and bad, and learn from them. Only then will we ever grow in our faith!

So as we embark on our next 20 years (Lord willing) we are thankful for the experiences we’ve had, the people we learn from every day, and the God that brought us together in the first place. We know full well that even though we’ve grown a lot over our time together, we are still learning as we go…